The Bantu family of languages is spoken throughout Southern and Central Africa, as far as the Gulf of Cameroons on the north-west, and the Tana river on the north-east.The name Bantu was first introduced by Bleek (1827-1875). The existence of this language-family was at any rate conjectured as early as 1908 by the German naturalist Lichtenstein. It will, I hope, be sufficiently clear from the title that the present work is only an "Introduction" and does not in any respect seek to enter into competition with those of Bleek, Professor Meinhof, Father Torrend and Sir Harry Johnston. I am under great obligations, more or less, to all four, though compelled to differ, occasionally, with all respect, from each; but I venture to think I have occupied some ground not completely covered by any of them, yet important from the beginner's point of view (adapted from the Introduction).

Contents:

Introduction. - The Alliterative Concord - The Noun-Classes - The Noun- Classes (continued) - Cases : The Locative - The Pronoun - The Copula and the Verb ' To Be ' - The Adjective - The Numerals - The Verb - The Verb (continued) - Moods and Tenses - Adverbs and Particles - Word Building Some Phonetic Laws - Appendix I. Texts (Zulu, Herero, Ila, Nyanja, Swahili, Ganda) - Appendix II. Bibliography.

This re-edition has been published as no. 13 in the LINCOM Orientalia (LIOR) series (originally published 1919, London, written in English. Author’s affiliation: Reader in Swahili, School of Oriental Studies, London Institution).